


a lungful

by Vennat



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Bruises, David Acting as Max's Parental Figure | Dadvid (Camp Camp), David Adopts Max (Camp Camp), Drowning, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Max (Camp Camp) Deserves Better, Max (Camp Camp) Gets A Hug, Max (Camp Camp) Is A Baby, Max Whump, Max's Parents Are Abusive (Camp Camp), Max's Parents Being Assholes (Camp Camp)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:40:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26763718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vennat/pseuds/Vennat
Summary: Max always wears his hoodie, and that is totally, 100% normal. Right?
Relationships: David & Max (Camp Camp)
Comments: 21
Kudos: 244
Collections: written by friends





	a lungful

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this all today because... god knows why. camp camp has thoroughly sucked me in. i have more ideas too so!!!
> 
> enjoy!!

David tried not to despair as he ushered the campers towards the lake. The campers had only been back for a week and a half, and for the first time in years they actually had the same group two years in a row! They were chaotic, but David was more than glad to see the return of these kids. A normal school year without any children cursing at him or setting anything on fire had felt  _ unnatural  _ after a summer’s worth of such activities.

David had kept in contact with most of the kids over the school years, trading a couple of emails each with them. The only one he hadn’t heard from, however, was Max. Even Nikki and Neil had both said they’d received no more than a handful of emails from him. 

When Max had returned to Camp Campbell with the attitude he had started last summer with, David tried not to let it get to him. Max never did like camp much, but maybe within a few days, he would mellow out some. Or so David had hoped.

A week in, it was clear that Max was not planning on mellowing out anytime soon. He was grouchy and irritable with everyone, even Neil and Nikki, and especially with him and Gwen. The attitude felt especially volatile, after the way things had ended last summer. Even though he had pretended not to see it, David had seen the tears in Max’s eyes as he gave both him and Gwen lightning-fast hugs, before he had darted into the car his father (?) was in. They hadn’t stayed long enough for him to get a good glance at the man driving the car, but David had spotted the same dark skin as Max, the same wild black hair. David would have liked to have a word with the man, but he’d been gone before David could even try, and he had long learned that the phone numbers in Max’s file were dead-ends. 

David tried to let up a little on the group activities, leaning more towards things that could be done individually instead, to try and give Max his space. Today, they were headed to the lake. Max had made it clear on several occasions that he hated swimming, but David figured with everyone else in the lake Max could get some alone time on the dock to read for a while. 

The kids swarmed towards the lake, cheering and jostling each other. Max walked three steps behind him, head down in his book as he walked. 

“Remember!” David called as they charged into the lake, “Don’t go out too far! Stay where I can see you!” he got no response, but he hadn’t really expected one. The kids splashed and cheered, calling out to each other and diving in and out of the water. Behind him, Max scoffed.

“Buncha fuckin’ morons,” he said, brushing past David to walk down the dock. David waded into the lake and came up even with Max, where he was seated a little way down the dock. The water came up to about David’s belly button.

“Are you sure you don’t want to get into the lake? It’s gotta be hot in your sweatshirt.”

“Fuck no, I’m not getting into that nasty ass lake. The water’s probably like nine million degrees anyway, considering it’s as hot as Satan’s ass crack out her.” Max glared at him from over the top of his book before dropping his gaze back to the pages. 

Well. David felt Max had made himself perfectly clear, despite the unnecessary use of language. And he was right about one thing-- it was very hot outside. David could already see the sweat on Max’s forehead and the back of his neck. The kid had to be roasting. Still… he’d never seen the kid without his sweatshirt before, and with how volatile he’d been, David didn’t think now was the time to push it. He’d just make sure the kid was well hydrated and didn’t spend too much time in the sun. 

David waded further into the lake, towards where Space Kid was paddling in circles, Ered a few feet away and pretending like she wasn’t keeping an eye on him. David swam a bit, but for the most part, kept a close eye on the campers. A kid only needed a moment to get in trouble in the water, and after the whole thing with Gwen’s Ex… god knows what else was in this lake. 

It had been about half an hour when David decided they needed a water break. Turning towards the shore, David began the trip back to dry land, scanning around him as he went to make sure nobody was gearing up to head farther out. 

Up at the dock, Nikki and Neil were creeping up behind Max, who was oblivious, head buried in his book. David cracked a smile, glad to see that the other two hadn’t been turned away from Max due to his poor attitude. Nikki and Neil, now only a few steps behind Max, started yelling and charged at him. Max startled, dropping his book in his lap and turning around. Nikki and Neil stretched out their arms, and Max only had time to cry out  _ “No!”  _ briefly before he was fully submerged. 

David knew that Max couldn’t swim, but the water there probably only came up to Max’s nose, and he was sure that Nikki and Neil would help pull him out as soon as he resurfaced. 

Except after a few seconds, Max didn’t resurface. Neil and Nikki didn’t have any sort of first aid or lifeguard training so David was sure they hadn’t realized anything was wrong, but when they heard David splash desperately onto the dock behind them their laughing cut off abruptly. David wasted no time sliding across the dock and looking into the water for Max. 

It was pointless, however. Sending Max over the side had stirred up the silt at the bottom of the lake, and the water was too cloudy to see into. David slid into the water, and it barely came up to his hips. Oh, god, why hadn’t Max come back up yet? 

David crouched into the, spinning in all directions with his arms out, searching desperately for-- there! A slight brush of something soft against his hand. David snatched at it, pulling the weight and himself out of the water.

It was Max. Limp, eyes closed, clothes stuck to his skin with water.

David wasted no time getting himself and Max onto the dock, immediately pressing his hands to his tiny little throat. 

His heart was beating, but he wasn’t breathing. 

David shoved down the instinctual panic and tilted Max’s head to the side. Water dribbled from his mouth, and David quickly turned his face back upwards. 

Compressions on the chest, to force the water out. One, two, three--

Max started coughing, and David let relief shudder through him as he helped Max onto his side. The boy spluttered and choked, before sucking in a huge breath. He started coughing again, but David knew that was good. 

“Someone go get Gwen. She should be in the Mess Hall.” He heard the sharp slap of wet feet on the wood of the dock and figured Nikki and Neil had both gone together.

“Max? How you doing in there, bud?” David ran a hand down his back comfortingly, and the boy flinched away from the touch but didn’t answer. He kept sucking in short, quick breaths and coughing it back out, again and again.

“Max, slow down, please. Your lungs just had the surprise of the century, you gotta ease up on em’.” Max showed no signs of hearing him, and David’s concern only grew. “Max. You have to try and take deep breaths. Please.” 

It didn’t even seem like Max was hearing him. David pulled him upwards, so he was sitting up. The boy didn’t even look at him, eyes foggy and far away. He was shivering too, and David couldn’t help but feel like this situation was spiraling out of control. Getting Max to start breathing again was supposed to be the hard part, not this. 

“Max, I’m gonna take off your hoodie, ok? We gotta get you warm.” Again, no response. He was probably going into shock. Hopefully, Gwen brought the first aid kit. 

David pulled the wet garment off of Max and set it down with a wet  _ plop  _ next to him. Max didn’t even blink as the collar pulled roughly over his face. 

When David turned back to Max he had to stifle a gasp. Max’s arms were littered with fading bruises, sickly purples, greens, and yellows. The ones around his wrist were clearly in the shape of hands and stark against even Max’s tanned skin. 

As David was trying to process the sight in front of him, Gwen came running up, first aid kit thankfully in hand.

“The kids told me Max  _ drowned _ , I was--” she catches sight of the bruises up and down Max’s arms, and her movements stutter for a moment before she gets a certain set to her brow and keeps going through the kit. “David, what does he need?” Gwen says in her most commanding voice.

David shakes his head to clear it, focusing back on Max. His breathing was steadier now, a little too quick but going smoothly in and out. His expression was still vacant, eyes glassy and far off. Right, shock. 

“Space blanket, and let’s get him back to our cabins. He’ll need to be in a real bed to have any chance of getting warm.” Gwen nodded, shuffling through one of the many pockets in the first aid kit and pulling out a slim, silvery folded rectangle. She quickly shook it out, wrapping it around Max’s shoulders, and David stood up, scooping the prone, silent boy into his arms carefully. “I’ll take him. Make sure everyone here knows not to bother Max about what they saw, and… check on Nikki and Neil. I’m sure they feel horrible.” Gwen smiled thinly at him, nodding, and David headed to their cabin.

Once there, he placed Max in his bed. The kid was looking sightlessly straight ahead, and David tamped down on his worry, instead working to get Max warm again. He shucked off the kid's shoes, but left the space blanket wrapped around him, and added both his and Gwen’s quilts around him too. He peeked under Gwen’s bed and took the warm water bottle he knew she kept there, heading to the bathroom to quickly fill it with warm water. He brought it back to Max, setting it on his lap and gently placing his little fingers on top of it to warm up, before rewrapping him into his blanket cocoon. 

He looked so small like this, face vacant, hair stuck up in a hundred different directions, blankets wrapped up to his chin. 

“Max,” David said again, kneeling in front of the boy. Max’s eyes flickered a bit, but he didn’t look at David. Still progress. “It’s me, David. You’re in mine and Gwen’s cabin. You had a bit of a scare there, but it’s nothing we couldn’t handle. I don’t need you to talk just yet, maybe just look at me, so I know you’re in there.”

David waited hopefully, and after a few seconds, Max turned his head slowly to look at David. He didn’t meet his eyes, but the response to his command and the bit of life in his eyes still had David wanting to cheer.

“That’s great bud, thank you. Now, are you hurt anywhere else? Just shake your head yes or no.” a moment, then a slow shake of his head no. “Good, good, that’s great. Now you just worry about warming up now, ok? I’ll be right here whenever you feel you’re ready to talk.” 

Max didn’t say anything, but his eyes were more vibrant than they’d been even a minute ago. David stood and walked to his dresser. He pulled out a plain grey t-shirt and put it on, following it with a sweat jacket he had in the drawer to chase away the chill of wet skin. His swim shorts were dry now, or at least dry enough that he wouldn’t worry about changing them. Socks, shoes, and he felt much more put together.

“My--” Max choked, voice hoarse, and David hurried to get him a bottle of water. “My hoodie,” Max said, once he had extricated his arm from the bundle of blankets and taken a sip of the water. 

“I left it at the dock, I’m sure Gwen will bring it and throw it in the dryer for you.” 

“You… you took it off,” Max said, avoiding his gaze. David tried to keep his expression kind. 

“I did.”

“So… you saw.” 

“...Yes. I did.”

“Shit.”

David huffed a laugh, and Max shot him a glare. David tried not to let on how comforting he found that expression on Max’s face. 

“You can’t fucking tell  _ anyone.”  _ Max spit, hoarse voice doing nothing to hide the fear and anger residing there in equal parts.

“Max--” David started, because he could figure where those had come from (those were  _ adult hands  _ scream his brain. The marks were dark and heavy and they’d been at camp for a week and a half, he must’ve gotten those just before he came to camp, or even on the car ride over--) and there had to be legal repercussions for it because if the police didn’t do something about it David wasn’t sure he’d be able to stop himself from doing something. 

“You  _ can’t,”  _ Max said desperately. “My dad, he’s, he  _ knows people.  _ I tried, once, and it just hurt me worse because he has friends in the police, friends who are judges and lawyers and it’s no  _ use.  _ It won’t do any good, so it doesn’t matter anyway.” Max’s voice is so… certain, so  _ defeated _ . Max is never defeated. 

“Then we just… won’t go to the police.” David surprises himself, and Max, by saying. “Mr. Campbell does whatever he wants and he’s yet to have any of it stick, he’s gotta know someone who can get you out of there without your dad being able to stop them.” 

“But who would take me? No one wants some punk little ten year old with a dirty mouth. And I’m not just gonna go somewhere  _ else  _ where I’m not wanted.” Max says it like it is his trump card, like he couldn’t believe anyone could possibly want him. David blames this as the reason he speaks without thinking. 

“ _ I  _ want you, Max.” 

Max looks up at him, shocked, and his eyes shine with a suspicious brightness. 

“And, and even if you don’t want to stay with me, I’ll make sure you’re somewhere where you’re happy, somewhere where you’re happy and safe.” David smiles tightly at Max. Now that the idea is in his head, David can’t stop thinking about it. He could teach Max guitar, and he could help Max pick a specific camp the next summer, and--

“Really?” Max interrupts his thoughts. He’s fully crying now, big fat tears rolling down his cheeks unbidden. “You really want me?”

David doesn’t even have to think about it.

“Of course I do Max, of course I do.” 

Max launches himself out of the cocoon and into David’s arms, clinging desperately and sobbing into his shirt. David shushes him kindly, rubbing a hand up and down his tiny heaving back, and reminding himself that Max is  _ his  _ now, and he won’t ever let anything bad happen to him again. 

**Author's Note:**

> can you guys leave good dadvid fics the comments?? it would be much appreciated
> 
> twit: elricsbnha  
> tumblr: v-ennat


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